Based on the images taken on Thursday in the Paul Ricard pitlane on Thursday, Scuderia Ferrari is ready to test a new floor design in the next round of the 2022 Formula One season, the French Grand Prix, as the Maranello team bids to up the ante in its championship duel with Red Bull.
According to Motorsport, Charles Leclerc’s F1-75 has been fitted with a new floor design which will be evaluated during the first free practice session at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille. For now, Carlos Sainz’s F1-75 is equipped with the old design (inset) and will most likely use the old specification for comparative tests in FP1, as the Maranello team will attempt to collect back-to-back data in order to understand the real world performance as compared to the promising results indicated by the CFD and the wind tunnel simulations.
The Italian side has focused much of its development work around the rear wing specifications in the last few weeks, but Ferrari, just like the rest of the teams, are aware that the floor remains the most important area that can be bring the can ultimately bring more gains in terms of lap time. By looking at Scuderia Ferrari’s old and new floor, we can notice a more definitive separation in the inner and outer sections of the tunnel’s entrance, with the transition near the floor fence being much more abrupt (red arrows).
The revised design will have implications on the airflow’s behaviour both on the upper and lower surfaces of the tunnel. The fence in that region will also be impacted, taking into consideration the fact that the roof of the floor’s leading edge is now much lower too.
The information is based on the changes which are visible on the outside of the floor, but most likely the Maranello team has made more changes and modifications to the underfloor with the goal of generating more downforce and therefore more performance, as there will clearly be a knock-on effect downstream.
Charles Leclerc will test the new floor design on Friday in FP1, while it is not yet clear if Carlos Sainz will also be able to use the new component this weekend, in the hope that the new floor will provide the expected feedback. Given the fact that all teams have to deal with the restrictions of the budget cap, we could see that they have preferred to introduce just one component until it has proven its worth, before producing more parts and therefore spending more money.
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Most recently, Charles Leclerc’s F1-75 ran a new low drag rear wing at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada a few weeks ago, which has since then proved critical in helping the Maranello team respond to Red Bull’s updates and taking the fight to the RB18 in top speed terms.
After Charles Leclerc secured the race win at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto confirmed that the differences on the straights between his the F1-75 and the RB18 cars was now almost nothing: “With that new rear wing, I think we have simply reduced the gap we had in terms of speed. I think they still have got a slight advantage, but it’s very little or negligible,” Mattia Binotto explained.
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